Chapter 8: Seeds Sown in Secret
Chapter 8: Seeds Sown in Secret
The next morning, they discovered that Yamaboshi High School had stopped functioning.
Despite «The Third»’s “hypnotherapy,” the students didn’t blindly accept everything. They had clearly noticed the situation going on with the track team, and some worried individuals had taken their concerns to the faculty. But the only response they got was “There’s nothing to worry about. Nothing is wrong.”
If it was only one specific teacher shrugging their shoulders, Taichi could accept it—but all of them? Plus, no matter how much class the CRC ditched, none of them ever commented on it. Something was going on. Something unnatural. It just wasn’t clear what, or where, or how, or to what extent.
Meanwhile, rumor propagation was at an all-time high. Everywhere they went, everyone was talking about it... and the content of said rumors had evolved, too.
“Y’know, uh... aren’t these rumors kinda weird?”
“I agree. They can’t be real... but the whole school’s talking about them, and no one can name a source... Plus, now they’re getting more detailed...”
“Something about this is weird, man.”
“And there’s already a handful of people acting even weirder...”
“Is this going to get worse?”
“It sure feels that way...”
“Maybe we shouldn’t be here.”
“Yeah, but I mean... we gotta go to school, right?”
“It’ll work out... won’t it?”
“Maybe someone will help us...”
The students had started to sense that something serious was going on. One would think they would’ve suspected something right from the start, but alas, only now did they voice their doubts. Furthermore, although they could tell that the situation would escalate, they refused to evacuate and instead chose to wait it out.
The hypnosis had carefully manipulated the student body’s mental states in order to shape their overall consensus. Slowly but surely, «The Third»’s group was laying the groundwork for a large-scale phenomenon encompassing the entire school... and all the CRC could do was watch.
At lunch, the five second-years held yet another meeting. Its purpose: to discuss the Record Wipe. Since their efforts were independent of one another, they all frequently forgot to report back on the subject, but today they were making an active effort to talk about it. Not because any one person said they should, but because they knew they were running out of time.
Sure, the track team had emailed them to say they “couldn’t take it anymore.” And Oosawa Misaki still didn’t remember the events of the body-swap or her friendships with the others. And two of the boys suffering the Liberation were reportedly at school, but not in class. And Chihiro and Enjouji had contacted them to confirm that none of the third-years had heard the rumors—only first- and second-years. And Taichi’s mother had threatened to interrogate Nagase and his other friends if he kept acting this way. And their classmates were now so panicked, they no longer noticed or cared if he cut class. And something was looming over the entire school—something big—something that excluded the CRC altogether.
But the Record Wipe had sat on the back burner for far too long, and they had no choice.
“So what should we do? Should we set up some way to remind ourselves after the fact?” Taichi asked.
“Sure, if we still have time,” Inaba replied. “But if we make the hints too direct, they’ll get caught up in the Record Wipe, so we need to be as vague as possible... But at the same time, we can’t be too vague or it won’t work...”
Although the Record Wipe would erase the events of the phenomena, it wouldn’t erase every single thing that happened within that timeframe. Thus, their tentative plan was to start with a “safe” memory and leave a trail that could guide them back to what was erased.
Of the five second-years, Taichi and Kiriyama had firsthand experience regaining lost memories, and it was Kiriyama who spoke up next.
“I knitted little matching dolls for everyone in the club,” she volunteered. “That way, even if I forget that we were friends, I might stumble across them and at least wonder why I made them... Maybe then I’ll remember.”
“Yoooo, that’s incredible!” Aoki exclaimed. “Me, I wrote all our upcoming plans into my calendar. If they’re only erasing the past, they might not think to erase the future, y’know? Then again, I guess I technically wrote ’em in the past...”
To prepare for the Record Wipe, the most they could do was try to create opportunities for their future selves to stumble across. But the Record Wipe could erase objects, so they needed to stay out of its range. They needed their objects to be categorized as something that would have existed regardless of the phenomena. Naturally, this was a rather arbitrary guideline. Still, all they could do was craft a plan and hope there was some loophole that would accommodate it.
At first, they hesitated to get started. After all, the second they started taking the Record Wipe seriously, they would essentially be admitting that the threat of memory loss was in fact real. Even Taichi was guilty of this pointless selective resistance, something he sorely regretted.
“Hmmm. You guys are so creative! I’ve—” Nagase began.
But just then, the clubroom door flew open.
“Se-... Se-... Senpai...” Enjouji Shino wheezed as she gasped for breath.
“You’re completely out of shape, you know that?” Uwa Chihiro commented casually. His breathing was elevated, but not to the same extent. “Guys, the Liberation first-years are in trouble. A huge fight broke out, and as you can probably guess, the teachers showed up.”
“Yeah... What he said... The first-years... are in trouble...”
The second-years had tasked Chihiro and Enjouji with keeping an eye on their Liberated classmates for precisely this reason.
“If there are teachers on the scene, then the fight’s probably settled down by now, right?” Inaba asked, focused only on the most critical part.
“Yeah, probably.”
“Alright then.”
And that was the end of that. No one else had anything much to say.
“Huh...? But isn’t it a huge problem...? Don’t you need to do something...? Or... is this your way of telling us to take care of it ourselves...?!” Enjouji started to panic.
“We’ve got something a lot bigger on our plates right now,” Taichi explained.
“Oh, right... You’re going to lose your memories...”
They hadn’t told the first-years about the schoolwide phenomenon. There was no point in doing so... because neither Chihiro nor Enjouji found the rumors all that strange.
Two vertices of the CRC heptagon had fallen under «The Third»’s hypnosis.
“So you’re just going to turn a blind eye to what’s happening?” Chihiro shot back defiantly.
He had a point, of course, but... his priorities were very different from Taichi’s. Would he feel the same way if he was in their shoes?
“It’s just... We need to be worrying about ourselves right now,” Nagase explained, her tone pragmatic.
“Oh. Right. That makes sense,” Chihiro replied, more calmly this time.
“I... I can’t afford to lose anything, either,” Enjouji chimed in. “That’s why I’m... I’m doing my best to think it through... Oh, but I did manage to come up with one good idea. I’ll get it to you sometime soon.”
The CRC first-years were working their butts off, trying to combat not only the two separate phenomena but the Record Wipe as well.
Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said of the second-years.
As the end of their lunch period approached, the seven friends filed out of the clubroom. But on their way back to their respective classrooms, a boy came charging at them at full speed, his expression one of abject terror. It took them a second to recognize him as one of the first-years facing the Liberation.
“Hey, what’s wrong?!” Chihiro shouted, his tone uncharacteristically compassionate.
Then the boy came to an abrupt stop—whether in response to Chihiro’s question, it wasn’t clear.
“Gah...!” The momentum sent him stumbling forward a few more steps, and then he fell to his knees.
“A-Are you feeling sick? Is it ‘controlling you’ again?” Enjouji asked as she rushed to his side.
“I just... wanted to run away... to get the hell out of here,” he mumbled, hanging his head. “And then it struck me, and my body started moving on autopilot, and...”
A drop of liquid fell from his face to the hallway floor. Had that sprint worked up a sweat, or—?
“Please... I can’t take this anymore...!”
No, he wasn’t sweating. He was crying.
And so Nagase, Kiriyama, and Taichi returned to Class 2-B. When they arrived, the whole room was gossiping about all sorts of rumors. Fujishima, Nakayama, Watase, Setouchi, Miyagami, Sone—everyone.
No one hassled the CRC for information anymore; there was too much going on at this point. Likewise, the CRC didn’t bother any of them, either; the situation had snowballed to the point that they could no longer handle it.
Only one person sat perfectly still, staring into space amid the chatter: Kurihara Yukina. Out of nowhere, she flinched. Then she looked around the room.
“Hah... Great... Not again...”
Scoffing, she stared up at the ceiling and rested an arm over her eyes. But though it was clear to them that she had switched bodies, not a single one of them approached her. Not Taichi, not Nagase, not even Kiriyama.
They were at their limits just dealing with their own problems.
If there were any warning signs, the CRC failed to notice them.
They had already tuned out the rest of the world.
And by the time they tuned back in, the students of Yamaboshi High School had vanished.
■□■□■
“They vanished? That’s absurd,” Inaba muttered, and Taichi was in complete agreement.
After school, the five second-years met up in the clubroom while Chihiro and Enjouji were taking care of their own business. An hour later, Nagase got tired of sitting around thinking about things, so she left to go look around campus—only to immediately come scrambling back. Panicked, she led them all out of the Rec Hall building onto the athletic field, where they found... absolutely no one. Not a single soul. The people who should have been there were gone.
Here at the tail end of the school year, it was normal for the majority of students to go straight home, with no club activities to attend to. But that didn’t mean there were zero clubs operating right now; plus, a handful of students generally liked to stay behind to study or just chat with friends. And yet those people were nowhere to be seen.
But when they walked through the school building, they found teachers in the staff room and third-years in the library and study rooms. At this, Taichi heaved a sigh of relief. For a minute he thought they’d wandered into some alternate reality, but of course they hadn’t. He was just paranoid.
They decided to speak to some of the third-years, just in case.
“Something different about today? Hmmm... It feels weirdly quiet, I guess?”
Next, they flagged down one of the teachers: Tanaka, the social studies teacher.
“The first- and second-years are gone? What’s so odd about that?”
No matter who they asked, they all shrugged it off.
Admittedly it wasn’t that unheard of for the younger students to take off early at this time of year, but... would they really leave their bookbags behind?
Every classroom they peeked in on had papers and writing implements strewn all over the desks, as if their inhabitants had been spirited away in the middle of their daily lives. But even when they explained this, the teachers still wouldn’t budge.
The answer they got was always the same: “These things happen.”
No! No, they really don’t!
Here in this altered world, there was no one left with whom they could have a reasonable conversation. And they knew who was behind it. The only ones unaffected—
“Ah... Things have gotten rather interesting, it seems...”
—were «Heartseed» and its ilk.
“The students are still at this school... just in a separate space... I wish I could have realized sooner, but... I’m afraid this caught me entirely off-guard...”
The five second-years of the CRC stood in the now-empty Class 2-B, three rows away from «Heartseed», who stood near the door. “Surreal” didn’t even begin to describe it.
“They’re not here! What ‘separate space’ are you talking about?” Nagase asked, her voice dry.
“They’re not here, but they are at this school... They have simply been isolated from the rest of your world in a... Well... Let’s call it an ‘Isolation Zone,’ I suppose... Yes, let’s call it that... Having names for these things makes it all so much easier...”
Supposedly the missing students were confined within this “Isolation Zone” at an alternate Yamaboshi High School that was an identical clone of the real thing. But because they were trapped in a completely isolated space, no calls or emails could get through to people back in the real world.
Taichi laughed in spite of himself. It sounded like something out of a freaking fairytale. How could they entertain this absurdity?
“You’re really challenging my suspension of disbelief with this one, buddy. The fuck are you talking about this time?” Inaba hissed.
“Yes, «The Third»’s group was planning this all along... No wonder it took so long to prepare...”
“Planning what, exactly?” Kiriyama demanded.
“It seems we can safely say... that their main motive is indeed to erase all your memories...”
They were under attack, and their enemy was an entity they’d barely even spoken to. It all felt so unreal... and yet that only heightened Taichi’s sense of impending danger. Perhaps it was naive of him to think a true enemy would bother revealing itself to him at all.
“I was wondering why they would induce the body-swap and the Liberation with other groups, place the rest under hypnotherapy, and spread those rumors... Well, here’s our answer... Oh, right... You remember how I told you that you’ve spent a comparatively long time under the effects of the phenomena... and therefore, erasing that history would be a massive undertaking...?”
Granted, «Heartseed»’s posture was still as sluggish as ever, but... considering the current circumstances, it seemed unusually chatty. Almost like it was enjoying this.
“Well, not only would undoing those events require a lot of time... but they would need a place in which to do it... The five of you interacted with many, many people during those past phenomena... thus it would require a lot of minute adjustments... for a normal Record Wipe, anyway... but I imagine they... figured they’d go the extra mile... while they were at it...”
“Man, I’m so freakin’ tired of this. Can you just get to the point?” Aoki was usually a patient guy, but apparently even he had reached his limits.
“Right... As you wish, Aoki-san... Basically... they have created this Isolation Zone... for maximum entertainment value... and on top of that... I imagine they plan to... erase all the affected memories of every single person who came into contact with the phenomena.”
Erase everyone’s memories? For “maximum entertainment value”?
“What are you talking about...? Why would they... do that... to the whole school...?” Taichi mumbled absentmindedly.
“Why, indeed...” «Heartseed» replied. “Admittedly, I can think of at least one hypothesis...”
Just then, they heard the clack, clack of footsteps walking down the hall.
This was the floor with the second-year classrooms, and as such, they should have had total privacy. But now there was one aberrant noise cutting through the silence: clack, clack, clack. A sound only high heels could make.
Then this third party came into view and interrupted their conversation to announce:
“It’s because you people are so interesting... as is «Heartseed»... so maybe everyone else will be interesting, too... I guess...?”
It was «The Second», piloting the lethargic, tottering body of Hirata Ryouko, their math teacher, straight into the classroom. Apparently, it had listened in on their conversation.
Now they were face to face with not just one, but two supernatural beings. In the same room. At the same time. This was... new, to say the least.
The CRC stared in shock at «The Second» as «Heartseed» grimaced.
“What’s the matter...? It’s me, <The Second>...?”
Perhaps it felt this introduction would “solve” the silence.
“Could you please stay out of this...?” «Heartseed» replied.
“What the...? But I’ve helped you so much...? And you wouldn’t have learned half those things if I hadn’t betrayed them... right...?”
«Heartseed» averted its gaze and fell silent. What were they talking about? What was going on between these two?
“Anyway, back to the conversation...?” «The Second» turned back to the CRC like it was suddenly in charge of the discussion. “Since we have to erase this stuff either way... and it’s going to take a lot of time... and we have to create this giant empty space... we may as well have a little fun with it, right...? That was our line of thought.”
So, since they had to do the work regardless, they figured they’d make the most of it.
“Wait, but... that’s...”
Having recovered from the shock of «The Second»’s entrance, Taichi’s brain started firing on all cylinders.
So this was all... the CRC’s fault...?
He looked around the room—at the notebooks and textbooks left open, at the open water bottles, at the uncapped tube of Chapstick rolling around on the floor. From the looks of it, these students were whisked away right in the middle of their everyday lives. And although the CRC apparently caused it to happen, they were left behind, powerless. They weren’t even permitted to suffer the consequences of their actions.
“Hold on a minute,” Inaba said suddenly, as though the idea only just occurred to her. “Whose side are you even on? You said you ‘betrayed them’?”
“I am one of them... but I’m helping your side, too. At the end of the day... all I care about... is seeing what I want to see...?”
Evidently the «Heartseeds» had something of a complicated relationship with one another. Not that the CRC especially cared.
“Right now, for example... I only came here out of curiosity... Uh oh. Looks like I have to go...?”
First it crashed their party, and now it was leaving early. Typical.
“I guess we’ll never know where you truly stand, will we?” Inaba muttered bitterly.
“I’m leaving now, but before I do... I want you to know... speaking as someone who is both enemy and ally... everything you heard just now was the truth... Ta-ta...?”
And with that, «The Second» sauntered off.
After that unforeseen interruption, the conversation went back to square one. All they knew for sure was that «Heartseed» and «The Second» didn’t appear to be working together to deceive them. They were being honest.
“The students trapped in the Isolation Zone—how are they doing right now?” Inaba asked on the supposition that everything they’d heard was true, though she never once said she actually believed any of it.
“The Isolation Zone is separate from the real world... therefore the other people in their lives cannot interfere... and so there is no need for any hypnotherapy... because the fact of the matter is, they can get away with anything in there... so I imagine things must be... fairly interesting...”
Taichi thought back to the rumors he’d overheard—the ones they’d only found out about well after everyone else.
Trapped.
Unable to escape.
Strange phenomena.
Spanning the course of several days...?
“Is this going to last for multiple days?” Taichi asked without thinking.
“Well... probably...?”
“And this won’t impact the real world? At all?” Nagase asked faintly.
“I’m sure some might notice their absence, but other than that... not really, no...”
“Seriously?” Taichi blinked.
“Yes... No matter what happens in there... it’ll all be gone by the time they get back...”
So, what, it doesn’t matter?
“It’s all going to get erased... All the memories of events that took place in there... as well as... all of the events caused by your phenomena here in the real world...”
Wait, what? It felt like that last part was new information.
“When you say ‘all the events that took place in there,’ you’re talking about the events that happen in the Isolation Zone... right?” Taichi asked tentatively.
“That is correct...”
“Okay, and what was the thing you said after that?”
“All of the real-world events you indirectly caused under the influence of the phenomena... Those will be erased too, remember?”
Yes, we’ve been over that.
“Naturally... this means they would need to erase memories from people other than yourselves...”
Of course the Record Wipe would erase their memories. After all, it wouldn’t be enough to erase just the CRC’s; they would have to be completely thorough or else the events wouldn’t truly be “erased” at all. Taichi understood that; it made logical sense. But while it should have been ever-present in the back of his mind, only now did he truly grasp it.
The Record Wipe was going to erase chunks of other people’s lives. That was a clear, indisputable fact. No man is an island, as they say; at some point along the line, their paths had intersected in an impactful way. So if the CRC’s history was erased, so too would that ripple effect disappear.
But until this very moment, it hadn’t occurred to him that he was carrying those other lives on his shoulders. Instead, he’d been looking at the world through a very narrow lens. He’d deluded himself into thinking that the fight against the Record Wipe only affected the CRC—that the fight was happening on their turf, within their context.
But that wasn’t enough. He lacked awareness of the connection between himself and the rest of the world... and to an overwhelming degree.
No man is an island. Humans needed each other to survive, and as a result, they made an impact on each other’s lives. Only now did it finally, finally sink in.
“What if... we had used our phenomenon powers to help two people start dating? Would that couple... lose those memories?” Taichi asked, his voice shaking.
“Yes, they would... Well, to be precise, priority is given to whatever fits best... and since there’s a chance they would have dated regardless... I can’t say for sure...”
History was going to be rewritten. Lives were going to change. All the events that only happened because of the phenomena would be erased in order to return the world to the way it “should have been”... and in a sense, it was the right thing to do.
But was it really right to erase the past? Without that foundation, what would they stand on?
“Well then, what are we supposed to do about their lost memories? It doesn’t matter how many precautions we put in place for ourselves if it won’t help them!”
“Allow me to go into more detail... The Record Wipe does not erase the memories of each person individually... but rather, the ‘records’ themselves... As it happens, your memories are centered upon the phenomena much more so than anyone else’s... hence they take precedence... This is key...”
“So... wh-what are you gettin’ at?” Aoki asked, panicked.
“What I’m saying is... if you succeed in keeping your memories here in the real world... some of them may be able to piggyback off of that success... and regain their own memories...”
“But not all of them?” Nagase asked in a low voice. It was hard to tell if it was safe to get their hopes up.
«Heartseed» let out a sigh. “Anyway, it’s interesting they didn’t take you all to the Isolation Zone with the rest... Evidently they don’t see the point in making you participate... since it’ll all be over before you know it...”
“It’ll all be over?” Kiriyama repeated in a flat, emotionless voice.
“What I mean to say is... the Isolation Zone experiments will all come to an end... and everyone will return to a world that no longer remembers us.”
At the same time, almost everything they’d built thus far would vanish.
“But in your case... based on the effort you put in here in the real world... it’s possible you’ll make it out with your memories intact... Not like they put you in the Isolation Zone, after all...”
«Heartseed» was dangling a carrot under their noses... but Inaba ignored it.
“How much time do we have before this Isolation thing is over?”
“All I can say is... not long... At least, I think it’s safe to assume so...”
Evidently the students would only be away in the Isolation Zone for a short period of time—so short, the rest of the world wouldn’t even notice. Perhaps time passed at a different speed inside the Zone. But this only raised more questions:
“So... normal people won’t notice that the isolated students have vanished, right? If so, then... why did we notice?” Taichi asked. After all, if the CRC had managed to notice, then maybe there was still a chance.
“Oh... That’s just because it has less of an effect on people who have past experience with us... For example, those who have endured our phenomena, or those whose bodies we have possessed...”
Just when he thought he found a ray of hope, it was snuffed out right in front of his eyes.
“...So there’s nothing we can do?” Inaba asked plainly. They were at a total loss, and all they could do was ask «Heartseed» for the answer.
“Not from the outside, no...”
“Then what about from the inside? We could go into the Isolation Zone with everyone else, right?” Nagase pressed.
All of them were desperate. Desperate for the smallest hint of a possibility.
“With some brute force, yes, I imagine you could enter the Isolation Zone... and from there, you might be able to accomplish something... but to do so would be risky... It is a space they designed to their own liking... so there is no telling what you may find there...”
And yet their friends were trapped inside right this very minute.
“For that matter, what are you people even planning to do...? You’re running out of time... You must focus on creating a safety net for your memories... here in the real world...”
“But everyone else is trapped in there,” Taichi replied automatically.
“You want to... save them...? Well, I suppose you could... if you really tried... but if any trouble were to break out within the Isolation Zone... an emergency shutdown could still occur...”
“Wh... So they’re still in danger of forgetting their friends?!” Inaba stammered.
“Yes, but... that being said... you have no reason to worry about them... I’ll try to pull some strings on my end or something... but only for my own sake... After all... they stand to lose much, much less than you do...”
Comparatively speaking, sure. But if their friends were in danger, then wasn’t it their duty to come to their rescue? Or... would the act of protecting their own memories then protect other people’s memories in turn...?
Maybe... they had no reason to put themselves at risk...?
“My point is, don’t worry about other people’s business... Remind yourself that no one will be harmed, and please... just focus on what you need to be doing.”
And so «Heartseed» left.
Out of all of the things they’d been asked to believe thus far, this was by far the hardest... and yet the students didn’t return to the classroom.
No one gave the command, but nevertheless, the five of them split up to check the first- and second-year classrooms. Then they checked all the neighboring rooms. But no matter where they looked, there wasn’t a soul in sight.
As Taichi walked through the school building, the only sound was that of his own breaths. Newly devoid of life, this school now felt far more divorced from reality than any “Isolation Zone” the «Heartseeds» could create. It felt... unsafe. He was frightened.
“Inaba!”
Just then, he spotted Inaba stumbling down the hallway up ahead. But right as he approached her—her body pitched sideways.
“Inaba!”
On reflex, he dashed over and caught her right before she hit the ground.
“Inaba, what’s wrong?! Are you okay?!” Searing panic raced through him.
“Uh... Yeah, I’m fine. Let go of me.”
But Taichi wasn’t ready to let go of her just yet. Not after that. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Got a little dizzy, that’s all. There’s just... too much happening.”
Her voice was weak, and her slender body was trembling. For Taichi, this was too much to bear. His chest ached. It killed him to see the love of his life so frightened; he wanted nothing more than to put a smile back on her face as soon as possible.
After everything that had happened lately, his heart was just so worn out. And he imagined everyone else probably felt the same way.
“Wanna go home?” he asked—without thinking, as if it was the most natural conclusion in the world.
Supposedly the Isolation Zone was unsafe... but they weren’t part of it. They couldn’t do anything about it, and even if they could, it’d only be a drop in the bucket.
Besides, there was already something worth protecting right here in the real world. Right here in his arms.
His cell phone buzzed. He checked the screen; it was his little sister, Rina.
I might be home a little later than usual today. But you better be there when I get back!
Lately his family had started nagging him to stop staying out late and come straight home after school. For the most part he’d ignored them, but that didn’t mean they weren’t important. He needed to arrange things with Rina so she could potentially help him regain his memories after the Record Wipe; plus, he wanted to sit down with her and just talk. After all, this was quite possibly the only chance he’d get.
Of course, he planned to put his full effort into preventing that from being the case. Yes, there was still a lot left to do here in the real world. Even if fantastical events were taking place in a separate dimension beyond all mortal control... Taichi had his own business to take care of.
“Yeah... Let’s go home,” Inaba muttered after a moment.
At some point after that, the five of them had met up again to discuss... something, but Taichi couldn’t remember what. All he remembered was that it was very cut-and-dried, with no bickering.
Then the five members of the CRC left the school building, walked off campus, and headed home.
+++
“I dunno... Are you sure you’re doing this right...? Letting them make the call?”
“Well... I don’t think I have much of a choice...”
“You think it’ll work, though...?”
“As long as I’m there to steer the ship... it will be impossible for them to veer off course...”
“Hmmm... I know you’ve got your own prep work to do... using other powers... or something like that...? But is it safe to leave the rest to... fate? Chance?”
“Not all of it will be left to chance, no... So yes, I’ve got a bit more to try to accomplish... but...”
“But what...?”
“Well... in the end... the fact of the matter is, all I can really do is pray...”
“You...? Are going to pray...? Hee... heehee... That’s so strange...”
“Given the current circumstances... I’d appreciate it if you didn’t point and laugh...”
+++
It happened when I was on my way home from elementary school. All of a sudden, I started feeling sick—but in a super weird way, and I really, really didn’t like it. All I remember is a thick, syrupy sensation in my head... Almost like my body was being vacuumed away to another dimension...
“A high school...? Is this my brother’s school?”
At the same time, for some reason a vision of Yamaboshi High School came into my mind.
Standing on the sidewalk, I readjusted my grip on my backpack straps and let out a sigh. Clearly I was really tired... I needed to get home...
And yet... for some reason, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Something bad was happening at my brother’s school—I could feel it.
Mind you, normally I would’ve just written it off as some silly paranoid delusion. But lately, Taichi’s been acting really weird... and Reika-san told me that Iori-san was acting weird, too. Maybe it was just my intuition, but... somehow I knew something was going on with them.
I pulled out my wallet and checked its contents. Just enough for a train ride there and back. Part of me was reluctant to spend the last few coins of my allowance... but I brushed that aside and headed for the train station.
By the time I came back to my senses, I had already deboarded at the transfer station. What am I doing?
A few minutes ago I felt drawn to that place, convinced that something was going on there... but now that I thought about it, maybe it wasn’t actually that big of a deal. Instead, I was kind of embarrassed that I got so worked up over nothing.
Nothing weird happening at all.
“...Maybe I should go home...”
It felt weird and a little scary, wearing my school uniform in a crowd of people at a place I normally never went. Maybe that was silly of me, since I would’ve been fine in my street clothes.
I looked up at the digital timetable to see what time the Yamaboshi-bound train was coming. Then I checked to see when the return train would show up. There were no delays listed; both would be here in just a few short minutes.
What do I do now?
If one of them was running drastically late, I could’ve let that make up my mind for me... but no. Caught between two choices, I was paralyzed.
Maybe I should just go home. It’s cold out here, and it’ll get dark soon... It’s not safe for a cute little girl like me to walk around town at night... Yeah, maybe I...
But before I could talk myself into leaving, I spotted the last person I expected to see. In her white clothes, she stood out prominently among the rest of the crowd.
“...Reika-san?”
“Hmm? ...Rina-chan?” Sure enough, it was Iori-san’s mom, Reika-san. “Are you all by yourself? Where’s your mother?”
I was scared she’d get mad at me if I said I was here for no reason at all, so I blurted out a dumb excuse. “I, um... I just... needed to go to Yamaboshi, so...”
“Do you have some business to take care of there?”
“Uhhh... well...” Oh gosh, what do I say?!
But right as I started to panic, Reika-san said the very words I wanted to hear:
“Why don’t we go together?”
Passing through the turnstiles, we stepped out onto the street and headed for Yamaboshi. Lucky for me, I still remembered how to get there after the time we came to see the Culture Festival. It was a pretty short walk.
“The truth is... I was thinking about paying a visit to Yamaboshi myself. When I called and spoke to the parents of the kids in Iori’s club, and they all told me their children were acting strangely, I started wanting to investigate.”
“Oh, so that’s where you were headed when I ran into you?”
“Not exactly. I wasn’t quite planning to go there in person, but I was thinking about making a phone call to the staff room to speak with a teacher. But then you came along... and I’m so glad you did.”
Likewise, I felt a lot more comfortable now that I had a partner in crime. Best case scenario, maybe I could tag along with her and get the chance to talk to a teacher about Taichi.
“But maybe it’s not my place to hover over her at school... What do you think? I never know what to do in times like these... I’m just not sure what’s best for my daughter...”
“I’m only in sixth grade, so I’m not sure, either.”
“Oh, right.”
Reika-san seemed to have a bit of a ditzy side to her, but all the same, it was clear just how much she cared for her kid.
“Right now, I just hope that... nobody’s getting bullied,” I muttered in a small voice. “Anyway, here we are at the front gates.”
Like I said, it was a short walk.
“Well then, let’s head in.”
Reika-san passed briskly through the gates, and I followed suit.
But as soon as I set foot on campus... a trickle of dread dripped down my spine as a weird, sticky sensation engulfed my whole body. I felt so heavy... and my head ached... Why did this feel so familiar...?
“...kay? Are you okay, sweetheart?”
“Huh-wha?!”
The next thing I knew, Reika-san’s pretty face came into view.
“You look a bit ill. Are you feeling alright?”
“Oh... Yeah, I’m okay...”
After a few moments, the sick feeling started to fade. What was that?
Regardless, we cut across the athletic field and headed for the main school building.
“Hey, um... I don’t see anyone...”
It was eerily quiet, almost like a ghost town. Er... ghost school, I guess.
Together, the two of us walked in through the front entrance.
“Let’s see... Where’s the staff room...?”
Reika-san stared at the map near the door. As for me, I was more worried about something else.
“Uh, Reika-san? This place really feels deserted. Isn’t that... kind of weird? Did everybody go home early today?”
Or was Yamaboshi always this quiet after school? It was downright spooky.
“Seems normal to me.”
Normal? Really?
We arrived at the staff room without encountering a single person on the way... but inside, there were teachers at their desks, working like normal. Thank goodness! I never thought I’d be so relieved to see fluorescent lighting. It felt like proof that we were still in a normal world with people in it.
“Hi there... I’m Nagase Iori’s mother. I’d like to speak with either the advisor for Class 2-B, or the supervisor for the Cultural Research Club... Actually, on second thought, I seem to recall they’re the same person...”
As Reika-san made her request, I hid behind her and listened quietly. Now that I thought about it, it wasn’t that common for a parent to come storming into their child’s school... and it definitely wasn’t common for a little sister to do it. Was I acting weird? Belatedly, I felt a little embarrassed to be here.
“Oh, yes! Hello there, Nagase-san. Haven’t seen you since the parent-teacher conference. You’re looking lovely, as always!”
One of the male teachers walked over. He didn’t look that old, but at the same time, he kinda talked like a creepy old geezer.
“Ah, and I see you’ve brought a cute little lady with you! I didn’t realize you had a younger daughter.”
“Oh, no, this is Yaegashi-kun’s little sister.”
“Well now, that’s an odd pairing if I ever saw one. Here, have a seat... Man, it’s weirdly quiet today, isn’t it?”
The man who directed us onto the (unsurprisingly) empty visitors’ sofa was none other than Gotou Ryuuzen-sensei. He was both advisor to Taichi’s class and supervisor of his club. So this is the guy they call “Gossan”!
“So, what brings you here today? Nagase-san doesn’t seem like she was raised by helicopter parents, so I’m hoping it’s something sane and reasonable.”
He was honest to an almost rude degree. I didn’t realize grown-ups were allowed to be like that. But Reika-san was unruffled by his comments. Instead, she slowly and calmly explained her worries about Iori-san—that she was coming home late, that she seemed concerned about something, that she mentioned she was in some kind of trouble, that it seemed to involve her club, that she had acted strangely in the past, that this all seemed to apply to the other members of the club.
“And... and my brother’s been really struggling with something lately... It’s not the first time he’s acted like this, but all the other times weren’t quite this bad. And when I try to ask him about it, he just says it’s ‘none of my business’...”
I was really nervous talking to a grown-up I’d never met before, but I did my best. Thankfully, Gotou-sensei looked me in the eyes, listened, and nodded intently. Maybe he’s actually a really good person.
“She’s never home... and when she is, she always steps outside to make phone calls,” Reika-san continued.
“She doesn’t have a secret boyfriend, does she? Okay, bad joke. Sorry.”
There’s a fine line between “casual” and “rude,” Sensei—and you’re starting to cross it. This is no time to joke around!
“Anyway... I can see where you’re coming from,” Gotou-sensei continued, returning to a more serious tone. “They’ve been dealing with some kind of serious problem, and for quite a while now.”
So serious, even this clown managed to notice.
“But me personally, I’ve chosen to sit back and let them do their thing.”
“Are you sure that’s the right choice? As their teacher? As their guardian?” Reika-san pressed intently.
“In my view, yeah, it is. Sure, there are some things that we adults will need to step in and solve for them, but for the most part, it’s better to let them figure things out on their own as much as possible. And if they make mistakes as a result? Good for them.”
“You think mistakes are good?” I asked. The conversation was getting kind of complicated, but I was doing my best to follow along.
“Making mistakes is how people learn. If you ask me, kids ought to get into as much trouble as they can while they’re still young... Well, within reason, of course! Ain’t that right, little lady?”
For a guy who didn’t look that old, he sure talked like a grandpa. Only grandpas said “little lady.”
“But... I’m just so worried,” Reika-san repeated. Parents sure do worry about their kids a lot.
“Being family is a lot more complicated than it appears at first glance. You care about them, so you want to help them... but if you help them too much, they’ll never be able to leave the nest.”
Leave the nest? Will I have to do that, too?
“Eventually you have to let go, ma’am. Try to have a little more faith in her. She’s a very capable girl—I know that for a fact.”
“I do understand what you’re saying. Really. But... I’m just afraid she’ll make the kind of mistake that can never be undone. You see, I wasn’t always such a good mother, and... there were times in the past that I was too hands-off with her. So now I’m just... terrified that she’s too far gone...”
“But she has you, right? She has a place she can always call home.”
Leaving the nest didn’t always mean staying gone.
“Basically, the best thing you can do for her as her mother is to leave the door open for her to come back anytime... Uh, hello? Ladies? Am I being too obtuse here? Should I stop talking now?”
He wasn’t classy or polished... but he was still an incredible teacher.
“No, it’s not that at all. I think you’ve really opened my eyes.”
And unless I was seeing things, a hint of color had returned to Reika-san’s perfectly porcelain skin.
When we left the staff room, the rest of the building was ice-cold—but not in a wintery sort of way. It was just... indescribably strange.
“While we’re here, should we stop by their classroom?”
“D-Don’t you think this place feels kind of weird, Reika-san? And another thing: Are you sure we’re allowed to wander around the school if we’re not students here? I hear they’ve gotten really strict about that kind of thing.”
“You’re rather precocious for a sixth grader, aren’t you, Rina-chan? Well, don’t worry. We’ll be fine.”
“H-How can you be sure?!”
As we walked, we finally caught sight of two other people.
“L-Look! Students! Wait... Do I know them from somewhere...?”
“Ch-Chihiro-kun! Doesn’t the school feel kind of weird?! It does, right! It totally does! Even weirder than your face!”
“What does my face have to do with anything?! And quit yanking on my clothes, Enjouji!”
It was Enjouji-san and Uwa-san, squabbling with each other. They were my brother’s CRC kouhai.
“Th-There are suspicious people over there, Chihiro-kun!”
“Suspicious? Looks like a normal mother-daughter pair to me... Wait, what the...?”
Uwa-san seemed to recognize me.
“H-Hi there... I dropped by to take care of some business, so here I am...”
“Oh, it’s Rina-chan!” Enjouji-san exclaimed.
I first met these two when the CRC came over to hang out at our house.
“Oh, and this is Iori-san’s mom.”
“Iori-senpai’s mom?! N-Nice to meet you! I’m Enjouji Shino! Iori-senpai’s a really great club president, and, umm...!”
“I’m Uwa. Likewise, I’m also a club member.”
“Hello there. Thank you for looking after my daughter,” Reika-san replied, bowing to each of them.
“So, er, what brought you here?” Uwa-san asked. He seemed a bit tense.
“I noticed that Iori... well, the whole club, really... You all seemed to be struggling with something, so I wanted to speak to a teacher about it,” she explained.
The two older kids flinched like they were busted.
“But instead, what I got was some very salient advice,” Reika-san continued warmly.
The older kids both heaved a sigh of relief.
“I admit, Nagase-san and the others do seem to be in a rough spot lately. They have a lot to deal with, and we only ever hear about it secondhand... although I get the feeling there are things they’re keeping from us so we won’t panic.”
“Y-Yeah... Plus, they’re keeping us at arm’s length to ‘serve as their support team’ or whatever...”
What are they talking about?
“A-Anyway, if you could just be there for Iori-senpai when she needs you, I’d really appreciate it!” Enjouji continued, bowing politely.
“Hold it, Enjouji. Now that I think about it, we’re only going to scare them if we keep talking about this.”
“Oh... R-Right...”
“I don’t really get what’s going on, but don’t worry! I’ll always be there for my big brother!” I announced, since I could tell that they cared about Taichi and the rest of the club.
The two older kids paused and whispered to each other like best buds. Then they turned back to us.
“While you’re here, could we ask a favor of you two?” asked Uwa-san, who was pretty handsome now that I got a good look at him.
“C-Could you guys pass these along to them? We ordered them a while ago, but we only just picked them up today. Let them know we’re pretty confident it’ll help.”
Enjouji-san had a cute “little sister” vibe to the way she spoke. She handed a vial of little black lumps to me, then a second to Reika-san.
“You want me to give this to Taichi?”
“Yeah. He’ll know what to do with it... I think...”
“And I’m guessing I’ll give mine to Iori, then.”
“We were planning to hand them out ourselves, but apparently everyone already left school for the day.”
“Taichi, too?” Given his recent behavior, it was unusually early.
“Well then, maybe we’d better run along ourselves,” Reika-san suggested.
“Okay!” I nodded.
Right before we parted ways, we traded contact info with Uwa-san and Enjouji-san with the request that they get in touch if anything dire happened to their CRC senpai. The things I do for Taichi, I swear.
“Which way is your house, Rina-chan? Now that it’s getting dark, I’d like to escort you home.”
“Oh, you don’t have to do that! Wait... Crap, I forgot to ask them why the school feels weird—”
“—I see the young Yaegashi-san has resisted the hypnotherapy... Ah, of course... Because «The Second» possessed her in the past,” drawled a lazy voice.
A chill ran down my spine and my stomach turned. Whatever it was, it seemed to alter the very air around us.
“Oh. Did you need something, Gotou-sensei?” Reika-san asked, turning to look at it.
But while it definitely looked like Gotou-sensei, I knew for a fact that it was something else entirely. How could I tell? No idea. Better question: Why didn’t Reika-san sense anything weird?
“In that case... perhaps little Yaegashi-san here will prove useful to me...”
Then it reached out—to grab my head.
No... just my mind playing tricks on me. We were meters apart, after all. It couldn’t reach me from that far away. And yet... it felt like its feelers were wriggling their way into my brain.
Images appeared in my mind... Sounds, smells, tastes... Like something was cramming sensory information into my head. It was so much, all at once—so dense, it all blended together in a dark swirl... a senseless, formless mass...
No, wait. I could make out something—just barely. It was all fuzzy, and yet the words hit me all at once. The truth replayed on fast-forward, shifting around me like a kaleidoscope.
Bodies, swapped. Desires, liberated. Age, regressed. Sentiments, transmitted. Phantoms, projected. Dreams, envisioned.
There were so many phenomena. So many threats. So many problems. All of it extraordinary. And it was all crashing down on my brother. He endured, and endured, and endured, and endured, right to the very end—good for you, Taichi! But now it was... going to... disappear?
It was all going to cease to exist. The slate would be wiped clean, never to be restored. It was really, really sad... I really, really wanted to cry. You can’t just erase everything that happened! That’s not fair to Taichi!
All at once, a torrent of emotions washed over me. I couldn’t breathe... I was drowning... My mind was fading...
“That’s strange... I just wanted to get little Yaegashi-san up to speed...”
“R-Rina-chan?! What’s wrong?! Are y—”